Distortion of Wigner molecules: a pair function approach.

We considered a two-dimensional three-electron quantum dot in a magnetic field in the Wigner limit. A unitary coordinate transformation decouples the Hamiltonian (with Coulomb interaction between the electrons included) into a sum of three independent pair Hamiltonians. The eigensolutions of the pair Hamiltonian provide a spectrum of pair states. Each pair state defines the distance of the two electrons involved in this state. In the ground state for given pair angular momentum m, this distance increases with increasing |m|. The pair states have to be occupied under consideration of the Pauli exclusion principle, which differs from that for one-electron states and depends on the total spin S and the total orbital angular momentum [Formula: see text] (the sum over all pair angular momenta). We have shown that the three electrons in the ground state of the Wigner molecule form an equilateral triangle (as might be expected) only if the state is a quartet (S = 3/2) and the orbital angular momentum is a magic quantum number (M(L) = 3m;m = integer). Otherwise the triangle in the ground state is isosceles. For M(L) = 3m+1 one of the sides is longer and for M(L) = 3m-1 one of the sides is shorter than the other two.